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3n illcmoriam 




I Among the victims of Quantrell's late raid upon Law- 
rence, was JosiAH C. Trask, Editor of the Kansas State 
Journal. Being identified with the cause of Repubhcan 
Liberty, he was among the first to fall beneath the mer- 
ciless hands of assassins in that cowardly and bloody 
iittack. 

The inhabitants were taken by surprise. At early day- 
break, awakened by the yells of these infuriated demons 
he sprang from his bed, and, despite the earnest protesta- 
tions of his young wife, went to the door, and demanded 
their business. Loading the air with oaths and yells, they 
cried, *' Your money ! — your money ! " He threw his 
wallet to them, when, with still more horrible oaths, accom- 
panied by threats of firing into the house if not obeyed, 
they commanded him, Avith three other gentlemen, to " come 
out." As no possible resistance could be made, and the 
iives of women and children were at stake, the order was 
obeyed. " Come on," said young Trask to his comrades ; 
and, advancing a few yards, they were commanded to halt 
and form in line. Then the cowardly butchery began. 
I'iring their revolvers, and riding round and round their 
victims, Avith the first discharge they pierced the heart of 
this noble young patriot. 

Many and bitter are the tears which have been shed over 
the mangled remains of one so fair and so brave. But his 
mission in behalf of liberty has been accomplished, and his 
memory cannot perish. 

His remains were brought to Fitchburg — his New Eng- 
land home — and now rest on one of its breezy hill-tops — 
a suitable lodgment for one whose soul was as free as the 
mountain air. 

His funeral was attended by a large concourse of citizens, 
and Rev. E. Davis — once his pastor — made, in substance, 
the following remarks, as a tribute to his memory. 

I HAVE seen, in a gallery of art, a painting, by a master, 

of the Sacred Head, in which the pencil has thrown such 

depth and refinement of anguish, that I stood dumb before 

^ ^'^^ for a moment, and then Imrried aAvay. And yet, such 

■'■'range attraction had that painting, that I have gone again 

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INMEMORIAM. ( 

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and again, only to gaze, and then, awed i4o dumbness as' 
before, hurry on, with my heart breaking in the smothered 
cry — 

" O, Sacred Head, once wounded, 
With grief and pain weighed down 



in LllC bUlULJ 



Witli the same anguisli I have looked, in imagination, 
upon the bloody picture now hung up before the nation in 
the green spot where but yesterday Lawrence, that beauti- 
ful young city of the West, stood. The pleasant homes I 
have there visited, smouldering sepulchres of those who 
perished by fire ; the friendly hands I have grasped, rigidly 
folded in a violent death ; the light of eyes that beamecl 
with affection, quenched forever ! Going again and again 
to that picture, bhnded with tears, I am compelled to hurry 
away ! My friends, gathered here to-day, you have had, I 
presume, the same experience. 

Nor can I dwell upon the sorrow which, in connection 
with the rqiu that swept over Lawrence, has called us to 
this place of prayer. These stricken mourners would not 
have me do so. Tendering to you all — Wife, Parents, 
Brothers, Sisters — on behalf of my clerical brethren and 
this whole community, my cordial sympathy, I turn, for the 
moment allotted to me, from this dark picture, to the light 
of that young life that lies, in my memory, behind it. 

Fourteen years ago I first know Josiaii C. Trask. He 
was a frank, glad, impetuous youth — the elements of a 
great life within him, and vital force enough to make that 
life, should these elements be perverted, a memorable wreck, 
or, if consecrated, lift it into "oreeminent usefulness and 
imperishable honor. For years I watched with unwonted 
interest tlie development of that life. But with native noble- 
ness of mind, he had also upon him the constant pressure 
of that wide, warm, earnest, liberty-loving, pilgrim faith, 
which, thank God, has never wholly died out from the 
homes and churches of New England. Before he left Fitch- 
burg, many a friend beside myself rejoiced to see these 
elements worthily rounding into form — a form of character ! 
which after-years were making compact and beautiful. 

Look at a few traits, which will lie at once recognized 
by those Avho knew him. 

Industry. — Who ever knew him otherwise than bus'^ 
He was preeminently so ; and, as tlio years went 



IN M E M R I A M 



he entered more fully into the battle of life, he seemed to 
act on Cecil's motto, ''Do something — do it — do it." 

Self-reliance. — When, at the age of sixteen, he left 
home, to find employment in his chosen profession, his 
father said to him, " Shall I not give you letters of intro- 
duction and recommendation to gentlemen in the city, my 
son?" his reply was characteristically full of this manly 
trait : " I think not, sir ; I can introduce myself, and intend 
to bo my own recommendation." 

Nobleness of Aim. — Not only to do something, but to 
do it well. To succeed in business, and in his iDlan for life, 
had to him the earnest of a blessing for others — his father's 
house, and wider circles of humanity — as well as for him- 
self. To control otliers by a hand that should mould their 
activities for beneficent ends, was a purpose that found a 
fittmg accomplishment, soon after he left home, in his fore- 
manship of the working force of j)rinters in a large New 
York establishment. 

Straightforwardness. — Governor Robinson, with other 
State ofBcers, had been indicted, on charges of a gross na- 
ture, by the Senate of Kansas, and he asked young Trask 
to go to the seat of government, and publish a small daily 
sheet, in his defence, during the trial. The boy-editor loved 
the governor, but ho would not defend him if guilty; and 
so he asked him, in his straight way, '^ Governor, is it all 
right ?^^ — '' Trask," was the equally straight reply, "you 
can trust me ; it is all rights Each knew, as great souls 
always do, his man. The case was defended in a keen little 
sheet, and the young editor had the satisfaction of seeing 
the executive of Kansas unanimouslu acquitted by the 
same body that had corruptly indicted him. 

Temperance. — In connection with the printing of the 
public records of Nebraska, he was making a trip to that 
territory, when, at the dinner-table one day, the captain 
said to him, " Mr. Trask, join me in a glass of wine." — 
" Thank you, captain," was the prompt reply ; " I drink no 
wine, but Avill join you in a glass of water." The next 
day, a judge, an officer of the government, said to him, 
" You are a man, but I am a fool. I did not drink wine at 
the table yesterday, but, not having the manliness to take 

stand, I 'pretended to do so." Young men, ponder these 

its, and copy them ! 

Iegard for Freedom. — It was this that led him to 



i I N JI E M O R I A J[ . 



Kansas seven years ago. It was this that kept him there 
— that he migiit help permanently to secure in that young 
and thriving State the inheritance whose purchase had 
cost so much blood and treasure. lie was asked, some 
time previous to his fall, " What will you do if the guer- 
rillas invade your State ? '' His reply was brave and char- 
acteristic : " I '11 die for Kansas ! " * 

Unselfishness. — "Was my son a Christian?" asked his 
father of the business man in Kansas, who of all others 
knew him best. '^ No, sir, not by profession," was the 
reply ; " but lie was unselfisli. lie loved God, and he loved 
his fellow-men." In short, he seems to me to have heard 
King David's charge to his kingly son, *^ Show thyself a 
man ! " and to have consecrated the energies of his nature 
to fulfil it. 

And must this life., so earnest and so full of promise, go 
out in darkness ? No — it cannot be. He has neither lived 
nor died in vain. I recognize in this young man — strong, 
beautiful, intelligent, unselfish — and the fiend, who, nigh 
his own threshold, in the gray of that terrible morning, 
drew the murderous rifle upon him, the fitting represent- 
atives of the two civilizations, the Pilgrim Rock and the 
Slave Oligarchy, now in deadly conflict on this continent. 
As the accursed assassin smote down this young man, so 
the relentless slave power is striving to trample down into 
utter ruin all that is precious in 

" The land which our fathers loved — 
The freedom which they died to win." 

Let this bloody deed be a warning to the land, and, with 
its kindred atrocities, impress the people with this fact, 
that, if the nation shall live, slavery must die ! 

* " 0, fateful prophecy ! 0, fresh young lips, 

That uttered it half smiling ! Did no drear 
Forecast of evil, like a dark eclipse, 

Blanch their bright bloom the while, as with a mortal foar ? 

« I 'U die for Kansas ! ' Ay, and he has died ! 

Died in the freshness of his young renown. 
0, reverently, my country, yet with pride, 

Give him his well-earned due, a martyr's name and crown ' 

And ' bleeding Kansas,' as she counts her slain. 

And Frceilom, numbering up her martyred dead, ^ 

Shall make brave mention of his sacred name, 

And weeping say, ' For us, for us his blood was shed.' 

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